Franz Schoenhuber

West Germany's far-right Republican Party launched a nationwide campaign to win seats in the European Parliament in elections scheduled for June 18. Anti-Nazi groups picketed the meeting in a Bonn suburb, and about 50 protesters shouting "Nazis Out!" crashed the rally but were thrown out by participants. Earlier, party leader Franz Schoenhuber told foreign media that he is no admirer of the late Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and said there is no basis to the charge that he is anti-Semitic.

They gathered at a sports hall in this tidy corner of Germany--ordinary citizens, waiting for their leader's word to revive their spirits. They weren't disappointed. At 70, Franz Schoenhuber may be past his prime, but the former Waffen SS sergeant basked in the moment that seemed as important for him as for the faithful of the right-wing Republikaner Party he has led for the last eight years.

Franz Schoenhuber, the ex-Nazi Waffen SS soldier whose ultra-rightist Republicans became the shooting star of West German politics, quit as party leader Friday, complaining that extremists have taken over. Mainstream politicians in Bonn said his decision marks the near-certain demise of one of Europe's most controversial political parties, which went from a mushrooming political force to a fringe group in disarray.

Franz Schoenhuber, the ex-Nazi Waffen SS soldier whose ultra-rightist Republicans became the shooting star of West German politics, quit as party leader Friday, complaining that extremists have taken over. Mainstream politicians in Bonn said his decision marks the near-certain demise of one of Europe's most controversial political parties, which went from a mushrooming political force to a fringe group in disarray.

They gathered at a sports hall in this tidy corner of Germany--ordinary citizens, waiting for their leader's word to revive their spirits. They weren't disappointed. At 70, Franz Schoenhuber may be past his prime, but the former Waffen SS sergeant basked in the moment that seemed as important for him as for the faithful of the right-wing Republikaner Party he has led for the last eight years.

Franz Schoenhuber, leader of the far-right Republican Party, declared Monday that the two Germanys should be reunited with Berlin as the capital. Schoenhuber outlined for the press the program that his party will take into the campaign for the general election a year or more away. "Our party's No. 1 priority is to unify Germany, step by step," he said. "To us Republicans, Berlin will again be the legitimate capital of Germany."

The far-right Republicans party of West Germany is exploiting the sensitive issue of German reunification in a way that has the centrist parties worried. The Republicans' latest move, under the direction of former SS Sgt. Franz Schoenhuber, is the announcement of the formation of an East German wing of the party, to put up candidates in the free elections scheduled for May 6.

West Germany's far-right Republicans party ended a two-day convention Sunday by adopting a national platform calling for immediate reunification of the two Germanys with Berlin as the capital. Most of the 1,100 delegates at the meeting in the southern Bavarian city of Rosenheim raised their hands agreeing with the main proposal: the "re-establishment of Germany with Berlin as its legitimate capital." Later, the delegates chanted, "Germany, united fatherland!"

The article about Germany's lingering war scars on the 50th anniversary of Hitler's invasion of Poland ("Horrors of the Hitler Era Still Haunting Germany," Aug. 28) alludes to a dangerous political movement now gathering strength in some of today's industrialized democracies. It is the attempt by influential right-wing extremists in various governments who want to shed feelings of national guilt over past wartime atrocities. If these attempts at assuaging national guilt are being made for political gain, it is an ominous sign that seeds are now being sown for a possible resurgence of political militarism in the 1990s.

The far-right Republicans party suffered a sharp defeat in local elections in the conservative stronghold of Bavaria on Sunday. While most West German attention was focused on the East German elections, voters in Bavaria elected council members and mayors in the southern state. Though late Sunday returns were not final, projections showed that the nationalistic Republicans were polling only around 5% of the vote.

The far-right Republicans party of West Germany is exploiting the sensitive issue of German reunification in a way that has the centrist parties worried. The Republicans' latest move, under the direction of former SS Sgt. Franz Schoenhuber, is the announcement of the formation of an East German wing of the party, to put up candidates in the free elections scheduled for May 6.

Franz Schoenhuber, leader of the far-right Republican Party, declared Monday that the two Germanys should be reunited with Berlin as the capital. Schoenhuber outlined for the press the program that his party will take into the campaign for the general election a year or more away. "Our party's No. 1 priority is to unify Germany, step by step," he said. "To us Republicans, Berlin will again be the legitimate capital of Germany."

West Germany's far-right Republican Party launched a nationwide campaign to win seats in the European Parliament in elections scheduled for June 18. Anti-Nazi groups picketed the meeting in a Bonn suburb, and about 50 protesters shouting "Nazis Out!" crashed the rally but were thrown out by participants. Earlier, party leader Franz Schoenhuber told foreign media that he is no admirer of the late Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and said there is no basis to the charge that he is anti-Semitic.

West Germany's far-right Republicans party strongly criticized President Richard von Weizsaecker on Tuesday for telling the Polish government that Bonn has no outstanding territorial claims on Poland. The Republicans protest seemed certain to stir up fresh animosity between West Germany and Poland in advance of Friday's 50th anniversary of the German invasion of its eastern neighbor.

The center-right government of West Berlin suffered a severe defeat in a city-state election Sunday that saw an unexpectedly strong showing by a far-right party known as the Republicans, which campaigned on an anti-foreigner platform. Voters gave governing Mayor Eberhard Diepgen's conservative Christian Democrats only 36.9%--a slump of nearly 10 percentage points from the last election four years ago. It lost 22 seats in the outgoing 144-seat West Berlin legislature.